Saturday, January 31, 2009

Okay. So my anaylsis? The soundtrack is great. Go out and buy/download the soundtrack. The movie? It was awful! The Husband was surprisingly more generous than I (which may have been influenced by the Scarlett Johannsen/Penelope Cruz kiss scene), but alas... it really wasn't funny and the damn narrator! Between this and Jesse James... what's with these narrators?? You don't mind a narrator when it's actually one of the characters or if its a person with a voice that's interesting... but this narrator was like someone who would be narrating an instructional video for insurance adjusters. Oy! If Woody Allen had narrated it would have at least been interesting to listen to.

Overall assessment? Lame! And it's hard for me to picture Javier Bardem *without* the bowl haircut from "No Country for Old Men".

Tonight we had risotto thanks to Jamie Cooks! The recipe was for gorgonzola, walnut and apple risotto but I mixed it up a bit. I used D'Anjou pear instead of apple and I added in two table spoons of gorgonzola dolce in addition to the crumbled gorgonzola and goat cheese that the recipe calls for. I also dispensed with the marjoram.

I would like to try this again with apple-- I think it would bring a nice crisp flavor and might make this a good spring or fall risotto. But, that being said, with the pear and the extra cheese it was very creamy and very good!

I first started making risotto after watching a Jamie Oliver show on tv where he prepared risotto with peas, pesto and shrimp. It looked easy so I thought I would give it a try. Then, when I got the Jamie's Italy cookbook I followed his recipe for risotto and it came perfectly. Tonight's was no exception-- if you want to try risotto I definitely recommend his method. After the success of this week's gnocchi and the risotto I'm thinking about going back to Jamie's Italy and see if he's got a recipe for polenta!

Tonight I'm very thankful that the Husband brought home Chipotle for dinner. I was too tired to continue with JO week. So, we'll try our hand at the gorgonzola, walnut and apple risotto tomorrow and "English" French Onion soup on Saturday!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tonight's Jamie Oliver dinner was home made gnocchi with gorgonzola dolce sauce! I have to say, this was a hit. The recipe came from the "Jamie Cooks" cookbook and is something I'm totally going to make again!

First you bake 6 potatoes for an hour. Once they're out of the oven for about 10 minutes (but are still hot) you cut them in half and scoop out the potato into a ricer. Once you have all of your potatoes riced, add in a bit of nutmeg, fresh pepper, salt a handfull of flour and one egg yolk. Mix together the ingredients with your hands to form a dough. Tread lightly though as you don't want to make your end product too dense.

Once you have your dough ball, divide it into three separate balls and roll them out on a lightly floured surface by hand. Once you have a long roll (like a sausage) you can cut your individual gnocchi in about one inch lengths. I then put the gnocchi in the fridge for a few hours until we were ready for dinner. The gnocchi cooked in salted, boiling water in just a few minutes and they were perfect! (Of course, I did manage to overcook the first batch which essentially disentigrated into the cooking water-- but I had reserved extras and those cooked perfectly!)

The gorgonzola dolce sauce was also super easy and very tasty-- made with two tablespoons of gorgonzola dolce, 6 tablespoons of heavy cream and three tablespoons of butter (simmered over low heat)... I topped the gnocchi and gorgonzola sauce with chopped walnuts and served a side salad (with slices of d'anjou pear and goat cheese!) One word: YUM!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Today we visited the American Museum of Natural History with Thisbe and the Wee Kraken! After the museum we hit up the Shake Shack which I have to recommend. *LOVED* the chocolate milk shake and the burger and fries were fab!!

I sauteed a diced onion and two stalks of diced celery, together with sliced leeks (2 good sized leeks) in a bit of olive oil and butter. Once the veggies are soft and starting to become a bit translucent you can add in the asparagus. First trim off the ends of the asparagus and the tips. Reserve the tips and then cut up the rest of the asparagus spears into 1/2 or so bits. Add the cut up asparagus spears to the veggies, together with one box of low salt chicken broth and half a can of vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. After the soup has been boiling for a bit lower it to simmer for 25-30 minutes. Add in a bit of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. I also added in a touch of garlic salt, a bit of white wine. After the 25-30 minutes are up, I used my immersion blender to blend the soup. I kept it a touch chunky and then Jamie has you adding in the asparagus tips. Keep simmering until the tips are tender. At this point I added in a bit of lemon juice and a touch of cream.

I served the soup together with goat cheese toasts and a nice salad. I was impressed that even Miss B. enjoyed the soup! This was a winner... so Jamie's off the hook for tonight and out of the dog house. We'll have to see how the rest of Jamie Oliver Week turns out. Tomorrow-- either gnocchi or "English" onion soup. We'll see what kind of mood we're in tomorrow!

Sadly, this week's theme has not started off very auspiciously. I tried out Jamie's recipe for Pappardelle with polpette and tomato basil sauce (from the Jamie Cooks cookbook). Jamie doesn't specify what type of meat he'd like you to use for the mini meatballs and I should have known better than to buy the veal/pork/beef mixture from Wegmans. I should have gone with 85/15 ground beef from Whole Foods. For that matter, I should have just used my own meatball recipe. Jamie's got you adding in nutmeg and cinnamon and it just wasn't the right flavor or texture. I guess I should have taken it as a sign of things to come when Wegman's didn't have any pappardelle and I had to settle for farfalle. Wish us luck for the rest of the week.... we're trying out Jamie's recipe for Asparagus soup, "English" onion soup, risotto with walnuts, apples and gorgonzola and the piece de resistance... home made gnocci (with gorgonzola dolce sauce...). Jamie's shortbread is also on the list. Here's to hoping the rest of the week's choices will be better.

Shout out though to the Husband for making us some jello-pudding for dessert. (I think I made need a small PB&J sandwich before bed though)...

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Last night the Husband and I watched "The Visitor". It was well told and everyone in it was good. I have to say though I think Richard Jenkins' Oscar nom was more of an acknowledgment of a 35 year acting career rather than a real shot at the award. His performance was understated, but I would have to give the Oscar to Brad Pitt... that being said, who knows what the academy will do, what with Sean Penn (egads!) and Frank Langella and all.... but I digress.

Today I went into the city and visited with Miss Em! We had a lovely lunch at Le Pain Quotidien and then saw Bride Wars! Bride Wars was cute-- got to love wedding humor. Some of the previews though were a little odd. One of them was for a new Sandra Bullock/Bradley Cooper vehicle-- it looked bad. Kind of along the lines of "Forces of Nature" except Poor Sandra is ten years older and Bradley Cooper is a poor-man's Ben Affleck, at best. (Her other movie that's due to come out, "The Proposal", with Ryan Reynolds looks a heck of a lot more promising...). Night at the Museum 2-- looks good. Monsters vs. Aliens... could be good (it is from the folks who brought us Kung Fu Panda, after all).

What else has been going on? Not too much. I finished the Rayski hat, with some pattern modifications (pictures to follow)... I also recently hosted a play date for a group of our Gymboree compatriots. I'm still recovering. It was truly amazing to see just how much food five toddlers and a four year old can consume. We easily went through 24 mini blueberry muffins, 8 large chocolate chip cookies, a pound of ham, four little debbie cakes, countless bagels, 10 juiceboxes and 6 YoKids yogurts... not to mention a few assorted pieces of fruit. Keep those calories coming we're growing little people over here!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to take any pictures... but here goes!

We started with Eggs Benedict! I made poached eggs, toasted up some of these newfangeled sandwich sized Thomas' English muffins and fried up some pieces of ham steak. Additionally, I used a Knorr Hollandaise sauce mix for the Hollandaise. Once the components are done, it's just a matter of stacking. (But beware, poached eggs can be slippery!).

For our side dishes I steamed some asparagus spears and I also made three pepper potatoes ala Sarabeths. For the potatoes I sauteed diced red, orange and green pepper, together with a bit of diced yellow sweet onion in olive oil until softened. Once the veggies have become soft, I added in a bag of diced potatoes from the grocery store. I proceeded to fry up the potatoes and the veggies on medium-high heat, adding a bit more olive oil as needed and liberally seasoning with fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt.

Tonight we had roasted asparagus wrapped in proscuitto (Giada's recipe)

as an appetizer and then for the main dish, fettucini with a veggie and tomato pasta sauce. I made the sauce by first sauteeing in olive oil one clove of garlic, minced, together with two small zucchinis which I sliced and cut into quarters. I also cut up a red pepper and added that to the pan, together with a handfull of sliced baby bella mushrooms. Once the veggies started to soften, I hadded a hand full of fresh arugula. Once the arugula was wilted, I added in a can of san marzano crushed tomatoes. I simmered the sauce and added a bit of fresh pepper, some salt, a touch of cream and some balsamic vinegar. By the time the pasta was cooked the sauce was ready to go to. It was light and fresh. Next time I think I would probably use a different pasta shape (maybe pappardelle?) but I certainly liked the veggie tastes.

Today it snowed a bit. Not so much that you'd think too much of it, but the Husband and I were hanging out up in our bedroom while Miss B. took a nap today and all of a sudden we hear a thud and then Husband notices out the window a mass of snow fall out of one of the trees across the street.

Turns out, a car ran off the road across the street from the house. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the local PD showed up and then a tow-truck a little while after. I can say, I hadn't expected that!

the smell of cheese off my hands! Scary! ;) Tonight we hit the grocery store en familie and then came home and had a food stupor inducing dinner. It was simple-- just sandwiches (lots of sandwiches)... we do love Giada's Tallegio, Pear and Arugula paninis and then the Husband made a good old fashioned italian sandwich with mortadella and fontinella. I also made a salad with fresh spring greens, goat cheese, dried cranberries, sourdough croutons and Newman's Own Balsamic Vinagrette. Quite simple and quite tasty. Tomorrow? Pasta with fresh veggies and asparagus wrapped in proscuitto.

Last night we watched "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Eagle Eye". Eagle Eye was fine, if predictible (though poor Billy Bob Thornton looked like a corpse) and My Best Friend's Girl was actually pretty funny. I'm usually not a big Dane Cook fan, but this had its funny moments (and it was *much*, *much* better than "Good Luck Chuck")

So the other day Miss B. and I are sitting on the sectional in the family room hanging out. Miss B. sees one of her toys across the room and she points at it. I don't respond quite quickly enough, and Miss B. was too engrossed in her MegaBlok play to actually leave the couch to get it herself, so instead she puts her hands behind my back and effectively pushes me off of the couch to go get it for her.

It was kind of like the time at Gymboree open play when she sat on one of the play structures like it was a throne and directed one of the boys to procure toys for her.

This is knit in one piece starting with the sleeve... I'm doing it with Noro Silk Garden. Thanks to the Husband for a great giftcertificate to the Wooly Lamb in Pennington, I scored some new great yarn! A couple of Noro items, and some baby alpaca. I'm hoping to make a couple of skinny scarves and a hat with the bright pink baby alpaca!

I also picked up the new Noro book by Jane Ellison called Family. I'm trying to make the Rayski hat, but I'm using Kuryeon instead of Iro... I'm also trying to figure out some of the pattern abbreviations, so if anybody out there is working on it, let me know your thoughts!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Sorry all dear readers... I've been preoccupied this week with a Loan Agreement for the job! But, it has been turned in and my free time is once again my own (at least for the weekend!) ;) I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's spa day!

Tonight's menu? Ina's version of Coq au Vin. We've also Redboxed Eagle Eye and My Best Friend's Girl! We'll see how those turn out!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tonight I made tomato soup and then two specialties from Ina Garten. I made a goat cheese and tomato tartlet from Ina's Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook...

and Pear Clafouti from Ina's Barefoot in Paris cookbook.

I had been wanting to make the clafouti for a long time and today I had some pears left over after I made Giada's tallegio and pear panini for lunch so I figured I'd go for it. I added a bit of honey to the recipe and substituted cognac for the pear brandy. The outcome? Very, very tasty-- and it was so easy to make! Also, the tomato and goat cheese tarlets were really tasty too. Overall? Yum!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Isn't it odd when you're friended by somebody that you have no recollection of, whatsoever? Not odd, from the perspective of the friender, per se, but odd in that-- the name vaguely rings a bell but the photo makes you draw a complete blank and you think to yourself-- is it me? Have I lost a chunk of memory? Is pregnancy brain so pervasive that it has just melted segments of my past (or was it law school that did that.... I have a choice, I can either remember the difference between strict scrutiny and intermediate scrutiny or all of the seventh grade. Take your pick).

Mickey Rourke?

Okay, one more time... Mickey Rourke?

Next thing you know Lisa Bonet will make a comeback too.

Now, if only it was Angel Heart that had been blocked out of my memory-- that would at least be productive!

Looks like it has an airdate of April 8, 2009! Check it out! I don't know whether the one I was an extra in is the pilot or not... hopefully, that way if it gets canned after the first episode we'll at least have gotten to see if I got cut out! ;)

Saturday, January 10, 2009

So, in the past couple of days we watched some other selections from RedBox. This included The Dark Knight (with bad sound.... and like tell me, just how *long* is that movie???), Babylon AD and Bangkok Dangerous.

Bangkok Dangerous came on Dad's recommendation and first off, let me say, what's with the title? It's like a MadLib. "Put one Proper Noun together with one Adjective" and we'll have a movie! It was pretty lame. I checked it out on Wikipedia and apparently it was a remake in English by the Pang Brothers of their own movie. The original movie had the hitman (played in this version by Nic Cage) as a deaf mute. In the new version the hitman's girlfriend is a deaf mute, apparently, because as the producers noted, Nicolas Cage will be expected by his fan base to actually have lines. Also, it's always a bad sign when Cage's hair is dyed an unnatural color. Here he had ridiculously black hair. I like Nic Cage, but his movies are either good or bad. There's really no in-between. National Treasure (the first one) Good! The Rock? Good! Raising Arizona (Great!) This one? Not so good. Kind of like Snake Eyes.

Next up? Babylon AD. What a shame! Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz and starring Vin Diesel I thought it had potential. It was poorly edited and they dubbed Gerard Depardieu's voice! How lame is that!?!

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Today, while driving up to see Mel, I was charging the ye old Blackberry and thus couldn't use my iPod adapter (what, ho, my Wagon only has one cigarette lighter...) we were listening to the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I started listening to the show more frequently during election season and one of my favorite shows was when Mr. Lehrer kept referring to James K. Galbraith (who was a guest on the program) as John Kenneth Galbraith (aka the younger Mr. Galbraith's deceased father and economic Guru). He did it at least three times, possibly four, even after James Galbraith corrected him. Finally, Lehrer just began calling him Mr. Galbraith. It was pretty funny.

Additionally, on the weekends we've been known to listen to the Live at the Met broadcasts and Miss B. is also regularly exposed to Car Talk.

Tonight, during dinner? Miss B. watched This Old House.

Between this much exposure to NPR, PBS and our familial affection for Star Trek, we're trying our darnedst to raise a Geek!!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Okay, so the more times I see this movie the more I like it. It was on tonight! And, coincidentally, tonight was Indian food night!

On the menu? Chicken Makhani, Potato Samosas and Naan.

This afternoon, while Miss B. was napping, I watched "The Golden Compass" while making the filling for my Potato Samosas. I based my samosa filling on the filling portion of the "Potato Samosa Tartlets" recipe from the June 1990 Gourmet Magazine, which can be found at Epicurious.com.

I had to modify the recipe a bit as I didn't have quite all of the same ingredients.

I started by sauteing half of a diced Mayan sweet onion in olive oil with a little bit of crushed garlic. I also added to this some garam masala. While the onion was sauteing I cut up four yukon gold potatoes into large chunks and began boiling them in salted water.

Once the onions were soft and translucent I added half a can of petite diced tomatoes (with juices). Once the potatoes were soft I drained them and added them to the saute pan where the onions and tomatoes were cooking. I then proceeded to further break up the potatoes into smaller bits with my wooden spoon. I then added in two large tablespoons of plain yogurt. Then I added in more seasoning including dried cilantro, more garam masala, some fresh cracked black pepper, coriander, cinnamon and ground chili pepper. Finally, I added in some frozen sweet baby peas and a touch of lime juice as well.

Once cooked, I let the mixture cool. I got out one pillsbury pre-made pie crust and cut it into four segments. I then took each segment of pie crust and filled it with a heaping tablespoon of samosa filling. I closed the pie crust around the filling, pinching four edges so that the samosas formed little pie-crust pockets. I put the four samosas onto a piece of tin foil on a baking sheet (but probably could have used parchment, just as well).

I put the samosas in the fridge for later and then reserved the rest of the samosa filling to be added to the chicken makhani.

Meanwhile, The Golden Compass wasn't bad. Though I have to admit I was very preoccupied with the main character's knitwear. I swear her winter hat was made with Rowan Biggy Print yarn. Apparently, I'm not the only one who was mesmerized by the knitwear. You can see other knitter's comments at unravelingsophia, iknit.org.uk, and ParallaxKnitting.

Once the Husband got home and brought the rest of our supplies I started on the Makhani, basing my recipe on that shown in "Complete Indian Cooking". I sauteed half of an onion and a whole jalapeno in olive oil. While the onion and jalapeno were cooking I cubed a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast and marinated the chicken plain yogurt (one large container) with garam masala. Once the onions and pepper were soft I added in the chicken and yogurt and put the heat on medium. I added in the reserved samosa potatoes, half a can of petite cut diced tomatoes and one small can of tomato paste.

Meanwhile, I put Kasmati rice in the ye old rice cooker (cheating, I know, but that darned thing is really great!) Also, the samosas were in the oven.... noting that I made a little egg wash for the samosas before putting them in the oven.

As the chicken makhani cooked, I added more spices including more chili powder and more dried cilantro.

The Makhani was good, but I have to say that the Samosas were really good-- a very true authentic Indian taste. I'm wondering if making them in advance and letting the flavor settle in before baking helped to do the trick.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Tonight we were going to have Chicken Maghani but instead, we did another selection from Giada's new cookbook "Giada's Kitchen" (a Christmas present, courtesy of The Mom).

In the pasta section of Giada's book there's a recipe for Orechetti with Sausage and White Beans. The Husband brought home orechetti (as it was mysteriously missing from Wegman's yesterday).

Giada has you begin by sauteeing an onion in olive oil while the pasta is boiling. I then added hot Italian sausage patties (which Giada instructs to break up using a wooden spoon while browning them...) I also added in a zucchini that I sliced and then cut into quarters. Once the vegetables are soft and the sausage has browned, add in a can of cannelini beans (drained and rinsed). Giada also has you add in a dash of oregano (I also added fresh ground black pepper and some salt).

Next you remove the pasta once it is a bit al dente and put it into the pan with the sausage and the vegetables. Add in a bit of the pasta water and a half a cup of mascarpone. At this stage I also added quartered large cherry tomatoes and a dash of dried red pepper flakes. This all tasted good but it was a little bland. I thought it needed something with a bit of a tang, so I grated about a half a cup of Parmesan and added it to the mix as well.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Tonight's dinner was based on Giada's new book, "Giada's Kitchen". I made the Tomato Soup with White Beans and Tallegio and Pear Panini. The tallegio and pear panini were great-- pear slices, a touch of tallegio (like an Italian brie), arugula and some honey, then lightly toasted in the panini maker. Great for dunking in the nice chunky tomato soup!

The tomato soup was easy to make too. I sauteed diced carrots, onion and celery in butter and olive oil. Once the vegetables were soft, I added in a can of cannelini beans, a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, three cups of chicken stock a pinch of rosemary and a bay leaf. I brought the soup to a boil and then lowered it to a simmer. The soup simmered for thirty minutes and then I used my immersion blender to puree it.

Miss Shannon has thrown out there a tag challenge! Go to your pictures folder, open the fourth folder. Upload the fourth picture to your blog, explain the picture and then tag four friends! Above is a picture from my photo entries folder and it is a shot of a female impersonator that the Mom and I saw years ago on Sixth Ave and 50th Street (right across from Radio City) (which seems to me to be the center of the known universe). She was dressed up so fashionably, and kindly permitted me a photo.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Last night we hit the redbox jackpot. While chatting it up with Thisbe I miraculously managed to reserve a copy of "Burn after Reading" at the ShopRite redbox in Lawrenceville (which at first freaked me out because Redbox identified this location as being in "Trenton", and god knows we don't go to Trenton! But alas, it's really just the Shop Rite by Chevy's anyhoo.) We scored that and when picking it up I also sprung for "Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five" and "The House Bunny". Verdict? Out of the three? The House Bunny was the best pick.

The Furious Five? It was 20 minutes, which would have been okay but they only got back Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman-- come on, couldn't Dreamworks have gotten it in Angelina Jolie's contract that she had to do any sequels/prequels and other promotional materials? They couldn't even get back Seth Rogan and Lucy Liu!

Burn After Reading? The whole movie was a set up for the joke at the end. This could have been okay if the rest of the movie was a screwball comedy but instead the Coen's tried to make it a black comedy, with the whole "comedy" thing not really being actually funny. Brad Pitt was good as a total goofball but other than that? Pretty disappointing.

The House Bunny? Rumor Willis with a back brace? One of the people from American Idol making their big screen debut? All sounds pretty lame right? Well, watch it after Burn After Reading and you'll have a new appreiciation for lame jokes. It was harmless and entertaining. Not bad for $1.

Tonight we hit up Rosa Mexicano on first avenue with Dave, Emily, Max, 410e9th and Jackie! It was great to see everybody, and who can beat good conversation and guacamole! Happy Chrismukkah and Merry Hannukamas!

Here's a story from the NY Times about a man in Ramsey, NJ who collects 1970's/1980's era Mercedes-Benz 300D's. I always find it funny that Miss Leda, Miss Melanie and I all drove a variant this model in high school. And yes, I think the article is correct when it indicates that when originally tested by Car and Driver the 300D made it to 60 MHP from a stand still in about 20.3 seconds (which in car-speak is about two and a half lifetimes).

At The Palais Royale

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I'm a thirty-something-or-other, soon-to-be-single, fashion follower headed to the City of Light to Eat, Pray, Shop.
Follow along and see what I'm wearing. I figure if I'm going to be in Paris, I've got to "Bring It" (even if I am limited to only one carry-on bag).